yesterday i had the opportunity to attend a very small (maybe 25 people) fundraiser for Rep. Ted Strickland of Ohio for his run at the governorship. it was an early look at a man running in one of the highest profile races in 2005. while i am more interested in the Sen. race in my home state of PA it was well worth my time and the free booze and food was nothing to be passed up.
he spoke for about 30 minutes at least about his background and prospects for the campaign. he then did a short Q and A. over all, not very impressive. he was about as inspiring as Joe Hoeffel was on the stump. now granted Strickland was in full DC wonky mode and talking to a very different crowd than his constituents. however, it was hard to see how he could give a rousing stump speech and woo the heartland of Ohio.
however, he has proven his ability to get elected and re-elected in districts that have a Democratic Performance Index of about 44%. so obviously his district sees something in him that i did not. he joked that it takes less time for him to drive home to his district than it does to drive from one end of his district to another (300 miles).
his district was redrawn in 2002, and he only retained 1/3 of his old one that he had held for a decade. he gained 1/3 each from two other legislators. he still managed to win re-election despite as he put it as attacks centered on "increasing taxes and pedophilia." when doing some research for this diary i stumbled across a freeper thread after he announced. here are a few of their impressions of him.
To: Columbus Dawg
"In my opinion, Strickland would be a tough opponent."
I agree, but Ken Blackwell can take him.
Unfortunately, Strickland is a formidable power player in Southern Ohio. He's entrenched like a rock with Da Yoooon-nion goons, and it seems a lotta people think they "owe" him.
Strickland actually has a very interesting background, which he spoke about at length. he grew up in a large working class family and went to seminary, where he got his BA and Masters. afterwards he did some counseling and then went and got his PhD in psychology. from there he went on to split his time between a professorship and serving as the psychologist for a prison. he did not go into the reasons for his decision to run for the House in the first place, but it was his first elected office he has held.
Rep. Strickland actually seemed to be most motivated to run for the governorship by the failure this year to get Kerry Ohio's electoral votes. as a sitting governor rather than his other consideration, running for Senate, he would have a much greater opportunity to help elect a Dem to the presidency in 2008. perhaps this was a function of his audience last night, but he spent about as much time talking about this as he did about the corruption scandals now racking the state.
speaking of which...he seemed to be apprised of the news we learned this morning. the Ohio newspapers have had stories daily on the increasingly growing scandals. one interesting detail that i had not known about was the fact that a former Noe employee, who purchased a bunch of expensive wine with Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation money had it conveniently stolen from his house after the police had put a lock down on it.
After the unusual investment was revealed, an investigation showed at least $10 million of that investment is missing. In that case's newest twist, The Blade reported today that the suburban Denver home of a former Noe employee, Michael Storeim, was burglarized over the weekend, with thieves making off with $300,000 in wine possibly purchased with BWC money, as well as artwork, guns, jewelry and cars.
"What a coincidence, huh?" Dann responded sardonically. "It's just truly amazing."
Though other property suspected of being purchased with missing BWC funds was taken into custody, Dann said authorities weren't sure they could safely handle the wine so they changed the locks on the wine cabinets at Storeim's home. Though he didn't have the keys to the new locks, Storeim was permitted access to the home.
"They tried to secure it there because if you take it to some evidence locker someplace you don't take care of wine, I understand it might lose it's value," Dann explained. "But this is just beyond coincidence."
Strickland joked that they were talking about creating t-shirts for the campaign that would read: Thinking of voting Republican? Just say Noe."
he believes strongly the Ohioans are getting increasingly sick of the Republicans who control all of the high profile offices in the state. day in and day out they hear of new scandal revelations, now whether this will last until the election is another story. however, if the sitting governor is forced to resign, it should make things easier for Strickland.
his primary opponent is the Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, whom i know nothing about. Strickland says Coleman has been practically speaking running for the office for the last year and raising money. the first filing deadline of importance is the end of this month. Rep. Strickland downplayed his projected bank since he only announced mid last month, but it will be interesting to see how much ground he has covered in that short time. he is having other fundraisers all this week in order to boost that number up.
this is sure to be an interesting race and high profile given the likely general opponent of our favorite guy, Sec of State Blackwell. stay tuned for a wild ride.